Friday 4 November 2011 18.44 EDT
First published on Friday 4 November 2011 18.44 EDT

Stephen Fry does not merely bestride our narrow world like the proverbial colossus. His bounty to us is also as boundless as the sleepless airwaves. Switch on your radio or television any day, and the great immanent polymath will be there, giving of himself. Tonight it will be in the latest episode of QI XL, a show that gets better and better. The other day he was Napoleon's horse. But that's merely the iceberg tip of his serial benefactions.

On Friday, the fact that his Qantas plane was diverted to Dubai after pilots decided to shut down one of its engines was global news. Whether it is cricket, the Greek bailout, new technology, Oscar Wilde, Chekhov or Wagner, Mr Fry always has more to say than anyone. He is inexhaustible. The rest of us, sadly, are not. Can he not grant mere mortals an annual Fry-free Friday? If only, of course, to allow us to savour the other 364 days all the more keenly.